Birmingham homeless man: trapped into arson by police, 'damned if I did and damned if I didn't'

“I’m not Natalee Holloway. If I came up missing, who gives a damn?” - Anthony Weaver

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Anthony Weaver says he stayed Tuesday night in an abandoned house in western Birmingham, the same place where he has sheltered much of the past year.

When he first started staying there, Weaver said, the electrical service was still connected. Now the only utility is running water, he said.

Being homeless and out of work most of the past decade - despite holding two college degrees - made him vulnerable to being coerced by a former Birmingham police officer into setting fire to seven to nine homes in the western part of the city in 2012, Weaver said.

He said he was afraid. "I'm not Natalee Holloway," he said, making a reference to the Mountain Brook teen whose 2005 disappearance still garners headlines. "If I came up missing, who gives a damn?"

Weaver said he was approached by Arnold about burning the first house. Arnold threatened to plant drugs on him and arrest him if he didn't go along, Weaver said. Arnold warned him other officers were involved and that something could happen to him walking around late at night, Weaver said.

After the first house, there was no turning back, Weaver said. "Once I did burn the house down I was trapped - damned if I did and damned if I didn't," he said.

"It wasn't on my agenda to one day go around and set fires ... I had no choice," Weaver told an AL.com reporter before the sentencing.

Arnold would send him text messages on which houses to burn, said Weaver, who says at the time he had a cellphone. Weaver said he would go in to a house and set something on fire with a lighter. He said he didn't need to use gasoline or another accelerant because the houses were old.

"I made sure no one was in those houses," Weaver said.

At first, Arnold told him he was doing a public service by burning some of the houses down , Weaver said. Later, Arnold told him he was mad at firefighters who had jumped in line ahead of him at the city gas pumps.

Arnold's attorney responded to Weaver's allegations this afternoon. "I think Mr. Weaver may be suffering from poor recollection of events. His story has changed a number of times, and he has an incentive to fabricate an elaborate tale, as he is suing the City of Birmingham. "

Prosecutors had agreed to probation for Weaver, despite being a habitual offender, because of his cooperation and willingness to testify, if necessary, against any co-defendants.

Weaver said he never had contact with Thornton about the fires, but Arnold and Thornton were like "two peas in a pod."

Weaver apologized today for playing a role in the arson fires. He said he especially wanted to apologize to the firefighters.

Claims of coercion were first made in a lawsuit Weaver filed in June of last year against Arnold, Thornton and other police officers. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Karon O. Bowdre dismissed the suit in January. The judge stated that Weaver had failed to respond to an order for him to explain why the case should not be dismissed after he had pleaded guilty to the arson charge.

Arnold, Thornton and Weaver will have to share in restitution costs for the burned buildings.

Among the conditions of his probation, Weaver will have to find a job.

Weaver has two college degrees, a fact confirmed by his attorney. One of those degrees is in English.

During an interview, Weaver talked about the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being his favorite book and made a literary reference to the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" when he called his attorney Charles Salvagio "my Atticus Finch."

But Weaver said his diplomas won't get him a job because of three previous crimes 30 years ago and his current conviction. He said at one time he had worked as a paralegal and an apartment manager before becoming homeless.

"Everybody has a breaking point," Weaver replied when asked about how he became homeless. But Weaver, tearing up at times, said he didn't want to talk about it.